Laptops, any advice?

[Hicks12]

right well, with university showing that my handwriting is still utter tripe (i cant even read it!) and my lecturers are happy for us to just do all the work during lectures and miss the practicals if we finish it so i made the decision that its time for a laptop!.

Now the hard part is what do i need? Its for university, portablity is kinda important but i dont see weight being an issue due to me shoving it in my back pack or something. Needs to be speedy enough for me doing HTML/VB scripting, SQL databases and all the other basic work stuff (word/excel and of course web browsing), if possible then also good video playback but no gaming because it will distract to much!.


My budget is probably the limiting factor, no cash at the minute but would like to keep it below the £400 barrier because well, my desktop does everything i need so its purely for work.

Now ive been looking around but theres so much out there and so many CPU's its bloody confusing, i generally stick to learning what desktop components are not laptops so the intel and amd naming is a bit new to me .

EzyRyder has a dell latitude e6400 for sale at £335 and that laptop looks great, the 2hours 30mins+ is good enough for me since the longest lecture/lesson is 2hours and 8/10 i have a plug near me. As i haven't got cash ive asked parents to lend me some and they said they'll let me know tomorrow so just wondering if anyone can support my idea of buying this one or offer alternatives to this? Ideally im looking to buy one and then when SSD's get to a bit cheaper shove one of those in it so i assume the cpu has enough grunt for what i need right?


Any helps appreciated!!.

but with work delaying my pay for a bit and waiting for student finance to finalize my grant which should be in a week or 2 finally

[Pob255]

Is that battary life manufactures clame or review tested?

Manufactures numbers generally mean lowest possible power settings, ie wireless & bluetooth turned off, screen brightness at minimum, cpu idle (or near enough) no usb devices or memory cards.

Also laptop batteries lose charge over time, so after a year or two you can end up with only half the charge time.

not sure if a netbook would have the power you need but I'd consider this
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239608
the dual core Atom + ion +13" screen (larger than most, so bigger keyboard)

Unfortunately most smaller sized decent speced laptops are going to be over budget
eg http://www.ebuyer.com/product/223718

[Hicks12]

Thats what ezyryder says he gets so its accurate i assume. Trusted reviews had their one running for around 3.5hours with wifi on normal load iirc so its high enough for my needs.

Not sure about the atom type books, think i should have said anything under 15.6" is fine . Larger the keyboard the better to be honest as its easier to type.

my orignal plan was to get something like £500+ but realised its no point because the p8400 seems to be a capable chip for what i want (i hope these benchmarks are right), its on par with an e6600 desktop chip and since nothing graphic is being used it should be alright.

With the price of a £380 notebook i might aswell get that dell thinking about it since it has 1 year warranty still and if i add a ssd to it then it would be similar priced and much much better . But as always thanks for your input bud!.

[Cheapy]

Brilliant website for comparing laptop processors and finding reviews on them.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...st.2436.0.html

For £350 mayby somthing like
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/121-V...Windows-7-Home
or
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/121-M...7-Home-Premium

Only thing is both arnt brands known for laptops. A couple of months ago carphone warehouse was selling off Asus UL30A for £350 that would have fitted what u wanted perfectly.

[Hicks12]

funnily enough that asus was the one i recommended to my friend for uni when he was getting one . Should of got it but didnt plan on at the time haha.

The suggestions are just swaying me to get this latitude laptop due to the value for money lol, better performance, better looking with the same amount of warranty.

Would it be a bad choice getting it? Cause i think im one sided as to get it as i like the look of it rofl.

[nibbler]

Looks a solid choice to me.

[Hicks12]

Well then it looks like thats what ill get haha, just got to wait for parents to give me the cash !.

[Cheapy]

funnily enough that asus was the one i recommended to my friend for uni when he was getting one . Should of got it but didnt plan on at the time haha.

Murphys law there

Enjoy your new toy! once you get it.

[Pob255]

Hate to put a downer on you.
Most places sell the The Asus UL30A for around £550-600 http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=1121064
This current situation with laptops is not a good one, production runs can often be 6months or less, so this could be out of production already.

The Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 backed by 2-3gb ram is probably your best bet for a solidly performing cpu, however most that use it are over £400

The Celeron Dual-Core SU2300 looks good for what it is and at £323 that viewsonic Cheapy linked to looks like a nice cheap option.

I'd not bother with any single core cpu these days, even though they are often better at single core applications, real world usage often means a lot of other background apps running means a single core can often be a bottle neck esp with a modern OS like win7

[Hicks12]

thankfully not getting that now pob was just saying my mate got one. Decided to go with the dell.
more performance from the cpu and nice design:

http://forums.hexus.net/classifieds-...ude-e6400.html
Dell Latitude E6400
Magnesium construction
Intel P8400
4 GB DDR2
80GB HDD 5400 RPM
DVD RW 8+
14'1 LCD (1280x800)
Intel X4500 Graphics
Intel Wifi b/g/n
Bluetooth
3 USB - 1 VGA - 1 e-Sata - 1 Firewire - 1 NIC
Windows Vista Business COA - will come with disc
Windows 7 Entreprise installed - don't have the disc
AC Adaptor
6-cell Battery lasts about 2h 30m when in full use, 3h at a push.
1.95kg weight

[Pob255]

Ahhh 2nd hand that looks very nice.

If it's one of the models with the quick release dvd/cd rom then you can get a 2nd battery that plugs in, which greatly increases the life.

[Hicks12]

oo well thats just made it even better .

Will have to look at that battery then

[Pob255]

Please note the IF at the start of that sentance
We've got some older dell's at work that have thoes added drive bay battery packs

[Hicks12]

I believe it is, the reviews for the e6400 say that the dvd drive is removable very easily to allow for another 2.5" hard drive (providing you find the correct bracket for it).
So maybe it can have a battery connected to that . Im thinking maybe of getting another 6cell battery if they arent to expensive as i can just leave it in my bag or something and always it spare but so far i havent found anywhere that sell it other than dell and its £130 .

[EzyRyder]

Ahhh 2nd hand that looks very nice.

If it's one of the models with the quick release dvd/cd rom then you can get a 2nd battery that plugs in, which greatly increases the life.

That is exactly the one!!! The DVD has got a button you can press and you can swap it even when its on

The battery is in good condition but its not new, I am not lying about that! New it would last 4 hours I think...

[Hicks12]

im not sure if it can accept a battery though, reading on wikipedia it seems to just mention the old D series as having that ability but i will continue the search! Eitherway as long as it lasts over 2 hours im happy .